Why are we moving from our current voting system to a touch-screen system?

As a result of the adoption of the HAVA Act of 2002, a statewide HAVA advisory committee was formed to study the current state of elections in South Carolina. Part of the charge of this committee was to plan and implement any changes necessary for the State of South Carolina to achieve compliance with HAVA. The committee determined that a uniform statewide voting system was one of the most efficient means available to comply with certain parts of HAVA. A uniform voting system allows for more consistency in all election matters and does not require a voter who moves from one county to another to learn a new method of voting. Additionally, the new federal Help America Vote Act requires the use of a voting system equipped for individuals with disabilities and capable of providing alternative language ballots. The iVotronic supports these mandates. The current systems used throughout South Carolina are not flexible enough to accommodate the need for multiple languages, to allow the visually impaired or disabled voter to vote without assistance, or to provide the resources needed for longer ballots used in today's elections. The system choosen during the state procurement process happens to be a touchscreen based product. This type of voting system was not mandated by the State Election Commission. All qualified voting system manufacturers were permitted to submit proposals during the procurement process. After an exhaustive evaluation process, the system selected by the procurement evaluation panel was Election Systems and Software's iVotronic, a touchscreen based product.